It seems to be very helpful — if the information can be believed. It seems as if it is relying on RSPO representations, and we know how bogus that can be sometimes. Again, just because a company is an RSPO member doesn’t mean a thing. Some use their membership to greenwash their unsustainable practices (some of Cargill’s suppliers are rat bastards that slashed and burned forests this summer).

I’ve sent an email to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo (the app sponsors) asking them where they get their info. If it’s from the RSPO, then it’s NOT necessarily trustworthy.

But there’s also another app called “Palm Oil Guide & Scanner” from the El Paso Zoo that I can’t seem to find on my laptop but I did on my iPhone. I tried it out and it really doesn’t do much more than read the ingredients, though — which any person can do without a scanner! But I admire its heart. Maybe it’ll help pick up the code words for palm oil that aren’t so obvious to shopprs, like the chemical-challenging “stearic acid,” elaeis guineensis, etc.

(In truth, though, it sort of reminds me of that old (OLD) Saturday Night Live sketch with Father Guido Sarducci where he was hawking his “Mr. Tea Maker”, where you put a simple tea bag into a mug, which you put into this Mr. Coffee-like machine, then pour hot water into the top of the Mr. Tea Maker that simply flows through the “tea-brewing” machine to the mug. The “machine” was completely unnecessary and superfluous. But it was hilarious.)

Check ’em out — but also do your own research. The RSPO is no angel.

UPDATED: 10/23/2013: Just in time for Halloween candy-buying sprees, the below article ran on CNN’s front page — and it talks about going palm oil free and about the use of the above-mentioned El Paso Zoo iPhone palm oil scanner.